More goofs, bad pitching doom SF Giants to another loss

Denver – Maybe manager Bruce Bochy has to start fining the players, if he isn’t already. Or have them report to work early for a little late-May spring training. Mere words are not working.

San Francisco Giants v Colorado Rockies

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Bochy closed the doors before batting practice Saturday, doubtlessly to address all of physical and mental mistakes the Giants have made on a trip that has dipped into disaster territory.

They then committed three more errors, giving them 12 over the five games, in a10-2 loss at Coors Field. Unless the Giants can rebound behind Barry Zito on Sunday afternoon, they will return to San Francisco after a well-deserved 1-5 trip.

Tim Lincecum added another run-bloated outing by a starter, allowing six runs in five innings. In one turn of the rotation on this trip, the starters surrendered eight, eight, six, nine and six runs. Never mind that 10 of the 37 were unearned. That is hideous.

The Giants were in the game until Wilin Rosario’s two-run homer in the fifth game Colorado a 6-1 lead, which starter Tyler Chatwood (5 2/3 innings, one run) did not struggle to protect.

Worse, Lincecum committed the type of mental and physical blunder combo that Bochy said the Giants need to stop making, and we’re not even talking about Lincecum slipping on the mound for a balk that helped Colorado score a run.

With a run in on a Dexter Fowler double that tied the game 1-1 in the thid inning, Josh Rutledge hit a squibber to the left of the mound. When Lincecum hit the grass to pounce on the ball he had no shot at an out anywhere. But he tried to throw to first and instead flung it wide.

Fowler scored and Rutledge ran all the way to third, allowing him to trot home on a Gonzalez groundball for a 3-1 Colorado lead.

Then it just got weird.

With Nolan Arenado on first base with one out in the fourth, Lincecum balked when he slipped throwing a pitch. That allowed Arenado to take third on Charlie Blackmon’s fly to center and score on Chatwood’s single.

Asked about his pregame meeting, Bochy said, “I though I should check in with the club. That’s all it was.”

He had good reason to pick this time, with two games left in what has been a sloppy trip – and beyond.

“Nine errors in four games, 13 in 10 games, that’s too much,” Bochy said before his team “padded” those numbers.

And yet, physical errors were not the worst of it. Some have been part and parcel with mental mistakes, and those are hard for Bochy to reconcile because the Giants have been so sound fundamentally.

He picked but two examples from Friday night to share with reporters: Pablo Sandoval making a wild throw past first base when he had no chance to retire Eric Young Jr. and Madison Bumgarner failing to back up third on an Angel Pagan overthrow.

Bochy also stressed the need for players to pick up one another, saying, “We’ve got to pitch a little better and control the damage.”